HC wraps up 2016 with hearing of criminal appeals before CJ

As has been happening every year since its inauguration on July 24, 2004, this year too turned out to be eventful for the Madras High Court Bench here. However, an event unique to 2016 was the hearing of criminal appeals filed by convicts in murder cases before the First Division Bench led by the Chief Justice.

Moving away from the general practice of listing only civil cases before the First Division Bench, the High Court Registry listed a handful of criminal appeals too before Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice S. Nagamuthu early this month and the judges disposed of as many as seven appeals in less than an hour.

During the course of hearing, the Chief Justice told the lawyers that he was not averse to taking up criminal appeals. “The only problem is that most of the documents are in Tamil and that is a handicap for me,” he said and went on to dispose of only those appeals which had been preferred against trial court judgements written in English.

Impressed by the paperwork done before listing the appeals for hearing and the ability of lawyers to confine their arguments to the crux of the case without reading out every piece of paper in the case bundle, the Chief Justice told the lawyers that he would recommend the system to the Delhi Judicial Academy.

“I saw a technique (of disposing of criminal appeals quickly) here. That technique is possible because of the lawyers. I was happy to see the kind of suggestion notes that were put up before the Bench for easy understanding of the facts.

“I was thinking of sending it as a model to the judicial academy in Delhi,” the Chief Justice told a gathering of lawyers a day after disposing of the criminal appeals of which a majority of them ended up in setting aside the conviction as well as life sentences imposed by trial courts, even in heinous crimes, for want of reliable evidence.

He suggested that the Bar Associations could conduct special programmes for criminal lawyers to hone their skills in conducting trials and recalled one such programme conducted a few years ago by the Delhi Bar Association in collaboration with the Supreme Court and the British Council thereby inviting English lawyers to train their counterparts here. “Modules were developed on skills required for examination and cross examination of witnesses. Barristers from England came and helped lawyers here in improving their skills. Court rooms were provided for the training,” he said.